During the last decades completely new technologies for high speed railway vehicles have been developed. The primary goals have been to increase traction, axle load, and travelling speed, and to guarantee safety of the passengers. However, the new developments have revealed new limitations: settlement and destruction of the ballast and the subgrade lead to deterioration of the track; irregular wear of the wheels cause an increase in overall load and deterioration of passengers comfort; damage of the running surfaces of the rail and the wheel becomes more frequent. This problems have been investigated in the Priority Programme SPP 1015 supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), aiming at a better understanding of the dynamic interaction of vehicle and track and the long-term behaviour of the components of the system. The book contains the scientific results of the programme as presented at the concluding colloquium held at University of Stuttgart, Germany, March 13-15, 2002.
